Concept Cafe – A Weird Cafe in Tokyo

Akihabara was a subculture town, a place where people who liked anime, manga, and idols would gather. One of the most famous places there was the “maid café,” a café where waitresses dressed as maids served food and drinks to customers who were set to be their masters. But nowadays, instead of maid cafes, concept cafes are in vogue.

What is a Concept cafe?

Concept cafes are known as “con cafes” and are cafes where the staff come in costumes, decorations and menus that match the concept of the store. What used to be hostess bars (A VIP bar where you’ll be assigned a few girls who you have to buy drinks for) and girls bars (Bar where women will serve you drinks) were forced to close by COVID-19, and the customers who used to go to those places started going to Con cafes. Con Cafe is a cafe, not a bar, so it is open for business both day and night, making it more like a bar in actuality. One of the reasons for its popularity is the reasonable price of all-you-can-drink from 3000 yen ($27) per hour.

Kinds of Con cafes

Maid cafes and cat cafes are the most famous con cafes, and they are still popular today. Some slightly different types of con cafes have opened recently, so we’ll introduce some of the more unusual ones.

Cafe & Bar Mermaid

This mermaid cafe is based on the concept of being under the sea. The interior is decorated in light blue and white with the image of the ocean, and the setting is the deep sea. The staff there are dressed as mermaids, and the customers are princes. Entering the store is called entering the water, and Yen uses the word “pearl” in the store.

https://akiba-mermaid.com/system/

Bunny’s Guild

This is a con cafe based on the concept of a casino. Casinos are banned in Japan, so you can’t actually bet money, but you can enjoy casino games such as roulette, blackjack, and baccarat. The clerks wear bunny girl costumes and the customers are called players. There are other settings as well so that you can completely get into the world.

http://bunnysguild.com/story.html

Akihabara Dracula

The concept is vampires, and the female clerks dressed as men serve customers as vampires. The interior is red and black, and the staff’s costumes are elaborate. A maid cafe of the vampire is also made by the same company. The cafe is popular among women who come to see the cool vampires. It’s interesting to think that Dracula didn’t perish, but lived secretly in Akihabara!

https://twitter.com/dracula_dansou

Con cafe is interesting.

There are other stores with various world concepts such as Alice and Dungeon concepts. The prices are a little high, but worth the money. Akihabara is evolving rapidly, and I guess there will be more Con Cafe’s in the future. Please go there when you come to Japan!